Regent with recline bar, lap-shoulder belt

[jalex]

Having purchased a new Regent for my 3-yo yesterday, I spent several hours struggling with the install in our 2002 Toyota Corolla. Since my son is right at 40-lbs, we have to use the short belt path.

I initially thought a center install was unlikely to work since this car has a weird lap-shoulder belt in the center that has two buckle tongues and two receptacles, but it turns out I can get an acceptable, if not rock-solid, center install.

However, I was totally unable to get an acceptable installation in an outboard position. Since we sometime want to be able to fit another passenger in the back, I'd like to see whether anyone else knows any tricks I haven't tried.

Since I'm using a lap-shoulder belt for the install, and since the recline bar is now required, the manual says that the the belt has to be routed on the outside of the recline bar. I cannot get this configuration to work. I think the source of the problem is that the seat back, at its bottom, measured from the wheel well on one side to the hole that the seatbelt stalks come through on the other, is actually about 1 inch narrower than the width of the recline bar. What happens is if I route the belt stalk on the outside of the recline bar as required, the belt stalk emerges from the seat on the inside of the recline bar, lays flat on the seat to the edge of the bar, and then folds around it to accept the buckle. When I attempt to tighten the belt, it wants to push the recline bar over to be aligned with the hole in the seat, and push the other side of the seat up onto the wheel well. I really don't see how it can be made to work when strictly adhering to the manual.

[ By the way, wasn't able to get a latch install either because the latch anchors are much too close together: the adjusters on the latch belt both get stuck up on the outside of the belt path long before the belt is tight enough. I wasn't too upset about this, however, since I would have needed to switch to a vehicle belt install at 48 lbs anyway. ]

I think that if I could remove the recline bar or use the long belt path, I wouldn't have any problem with the install, but, of course, neither of those are allowed anymore. Has anyone managed a successful install with the newer instructions in a 2002 Corolla (or 2001 - I think it was basically identical)? Failing that, has anyone seen a similar issue to mine in a different vehicle?

[LuvBug03]

Is your corolla the new or old design? Mine is an 03 but was manufactured in january of 02. It is the new model though, so they leaped ahead to make it stand out.
Evenso I can not get an acceptable outboard install using the seatbelt, but I can with the LATCH. I can not get all of the slack out of the tether though, which makes it useless after 50lbs(when a tether is required). I also had the same issue with the tether in my center seat, but the install was fine.
I have a pre-advisory regent though, so it is optional for me to follow the new instructions. As a compromise I moved the regent to my mom's van and the husky back to my corolla. The tether location is what differs on the regent and husky, so I have no issues with it in my car.

[jalex]

It's the old design, but having looked at some pictures of the back seat of an '03, I'm not surprised you had similar problems. The fundamental problem seems to be that the wheel well intruding into the passenger compartment, which doesn't leave a lot of room to accommodate such a large seat.

I bet they spread the LATCH anchors farther apart in your model year, making a LATCH install possible. The closeness of the LATCH anchors gave me headaches with every seat we've had, not just the Regent.

Getting the slack out of the tether was not easy either. What I did was pull all of the slack out one side (the side without the adjuster) through the tether hook, then cinched down the adjuster.

[LuvBug03]

Latch is a standardized distance of approx. 11" so they should all be the same.
Mine arent as deep into the seatbite as some though, which has given me issues. This is what the LATCH ends up looking like when tightened.
At first I couldnt get all the slack out, but after playing with it and sitting it upright more with the bar in... I was eventually able to get enough slack for it to be acceptable. It still wiggled some, but it was acceptable.
http://pic50.picturetrail.com/VOL493/2241001/9131735/264811047.jpg

[jalex]

While the centers of the LATCH anchors are indeed about 11" apart, my anchors are composed of very wide rectangular loops, and the inner corners are less than 9.5in apart. When I have the adjusters in the same position as your picture on both sides of the seat, the seat is still unacceptably loose.

In any case, since we would ultimately have to give up LATCH at 48 lbs, I wanted to make sure that a vehicle belt installation was possible.